Ranked #6199

Hanoka

I'm not really sure what I expected from this show initially. I'm all for new techniques used in any kind of context, and given that this Anime series had been animated entirely in Flash format, I thought of it as perhaps something exciting, something catching. Also, the episodes were short...meaning I wouldn't have to endure THAT much if it proved to not be worth my time. :-J So, how did my opinion turn out?

Story: 3/10
Rehash, rehash, rehash. Well, it's a war between humans and large ferocious aliens, and special superpowered units have been deployed to aid the humans in the war. Hanoka is one of these - a girl with impossible strength a'la Saikano, who is teamed up with a boy (and the entire series through, I thought this was a girl) to take on this alien threat. Throughout the show, we see the usual, predictable scenes such as "I'll fight to protect you", "he gave me a reason to live", and "raagh you fatally injured him and now my powers increased tenfold because of my emotional distress". The originality of the show is close to zero, and since it's so short it skips from point to point making every confrontation end almost anticlimactically. No, if it's a proper story you're looking for, then this isn't it.

Animation: 5/10
It's a valid attempt, but in the end, Flash is Flash, and it's painfully obvious that it's not one of the better choices for a TV show.
...that's really all I can figure to say. Maybe you understand what I mean.

Sound: 7/10
Here's one of the more decent points of the show, what with the sound effects, the voices and the music. It blends together neatly, the sound is crisp, and the music is really quite fitting to every aspect it's played. What racks down on this score the most, though, is the fact that - GOD - is Hanoka whiny...do not want those kind of voices. No, definitely not.

Character: 4/10
As I said...there's the rehashing. There are the heroes, the hero supporters, the neutrals, the evil masterminds and the evil masterminds' braindead soldier troops...and none of them really stands out in any way at all. Simply put, it's quite hard to feel attached to any single one of them, because they act so properly in their stereotypes and don't really go out to be very unique.

Enjoyment: 2/10
I was curious to see how they'd pull off a series in Flash, but it feels like that was the sole purpose of the show - get a Flash series out, never mind the story or the characters. No sir, didn't get much enjoyment out of this one...I just felt embarrassed watching it.

So that's what it boils down to. Note that my opinion isn't veto in any way :-P, but my recommendation is such - don't bother with this one. It just wasn't worth the time (*cough* *has more free time than a tombed mummy*) or the braincells sacrificed to delve into it. read more

-Story-

The story in Hanoka is a jumbled up mess and it is really incoherent. It is also a stereotypical story about a war between humans and aliens over a planet. There were a million moments in which the story followed cliches to the letter. There is minimal originality in this story. Also the ending has got to be the worst ending I have ever seen to an anime series. Terrible does not even begin to describe Hanoka.

-Animation-

Hanoka was the very first full fledge anime series to be animated completely in Flash. This is a terrible mistake. The flash makes the animation look unnatural, especially when viewing the characters. The faces and heads do not look right at all, and the faces show no expression on them what so ever. I do applaud the makers for trying flash, but it appears that the technology has come no where close to where it needs to be to make it worth while.

-Characters-

The characters in Hanoka were highly stereotypical and they were bland. The characters had no originality to them at all. The main male character was gender neutral, and I thought that he was a girl until I found out he was a boy from a third party source. The characters have no depth to them.

-Overall-

Hanoka is a terrible waste of your precious free time. Spend it in a better way, like stabbing yourself with a dull spoon. read more